The hoo-hah about Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand’s comments on BBC Radio 2 are interesting. Not because of the incident itself but because it is saying something important about the relationship between the BBC and its audiences. The audience are assuming much greater ownership of the BBC, therefore they are beginning to want greater transparency from BBC managers. They appear to also feel that the salary Jonathan Ross receives is too high, as the public servant with the highest salary in the UK (6 Million pounds Sterling), the return on investment must be very great indeed.
Audiences are beginning to colonise the BBC, on the BBC’s invitation to have a deeper two-way relationship, an interactive relationship. There are ‘islands’ of audience-generated content laced between the professional content produced by BBC staff. The BBC is framing itself as being interactive, therefore offering a reaction for every action, or enough – and good-enough - reactions to qualify as having an interactive relationship. But how much listening is going on and how much responding?
Russell Brand’s Radio 2 show was recorded on Tuesday 16th October and broadcast two days later, after the nine o’clock watershed, between 2100 and 2300 GMT. On Saturday 25th October Brand apologised, but it was not until the end of the first week of November (nearly three week’s later) that an ‘official’ apology is made. In addition, it takes the agency of The BBC Trust and Ofcom to unravel what ‘really happened’ for the public, not the BBC. And it was The BBC Trust who asked the BBC to make a formal apology.
What this is about is the BBC being open to its shareholders, the public; being much more responsive, faster. The BBC is often compared to that great liner The Queen Mary; it takes a long time to turn it around. The BBC must listen, acknowledge and respond more to audiences, and in different ways. An official announcement is also incredibly old-style. If someone from Radio 2 management had responded instantly, via the website, for example, in real time, would this have reduced the amount of complaints received from the public?
Interestingly most of the complaints came from older members of the audience, suggesting Brand was out of step with his audience (who are mainly over 35 years of age). However there were also a huge number of complaints from people who hadn’t even heard the show. So I suggest this is not about the show at all, it’s about the BBC’s audience wanting the BBC to reply, in a timely manner, appropriately…oh and it’s also about salaries.
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